Sweden's housing shortage an obstacle to integration: report

Container homes, such as these in Stockholm, have been one solution to the housing shortage. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / TT

Published: 07.Nov.2018 16:02 hrs

Authorities are struggling to offer permanent housing to newly arrived people in Sweden's most populous areas, according to a new report, which warned that this could be an obstacle to integration.

The report was based on responses from municipal and regional councils to a survey and assessed how the authorities' activities – for example in social care and healthcare – were affected by changes in the number of refugees and new arrivals in Sweden.

In most cases, the municipalities estimated that the impact of the new arrivals on the different services and activities had decreased over the past year. This meant that there was a smaller impact on things such as social care, dental care, and psychiatric care, and in terms of education, the effect had remained stable.

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